About The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul /

Minnesota Film Arts

The Film Society/Minnesota Film Arts, was born of a merger, in 2002, between the 40 year old U Film Society, the Twin Cities' foremost exhibitor of art-house fare and longstanding producer of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, and the 10 year old Oak Street Arts, one of the most ambitious repertory cinema and community film access organizations in the country. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, the annual film event of the Upper Midwest, has a venerable 30 year history.

MFA/The Film Society is located at the St. Anthony Main Theatre Complex on the Mississippi River, where it continues its tradition of year-round film exhibition and where it hosts the annual International Film Festival. The Film Society is one of the most diversified film-arts organizations in the country and is the largest exhibitor of artistic films in the upper Midwest, exhibiting some 400 titles annually to an audience in excess of 100,000. Its inherited 50+ year operating history makes MFA one of the oldest film-arts organizations in the nation.

Mission Statement

Presentation: Minnesota Film Arts/The Film Society is dedicated to presenting the best of new and historical independent and international cinema to the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota audiences. We pursue this mission through year-round programming at St. Anthony Main Theatre, as well as through our annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival and smaller specialized festivals. Our purpose is to embrace and illuminate the past, present, and future of the moving image for audiences and artists residing in the Twin Cities and beyond.

Advocacy: As the largest dedicated film-arts organization in the Twin Cities, The Film Society takes seriously its leadership duty within the broader civic community. Thus, we see advocacy among diverse civic bodies as central to our mission. This advocacy translates to access projects at St. Anthony Main Theatre; partnerships with emerging festivals and presentations. Our purpose is to ensure film’s legitimacy as a sustainable community-based art form in the Twin Cities.

Board of Directors

Staff

Guest Programmers

Interns